It actually looks pretty likely that the MAC winner will get the at-large spot. All they need to do is reach 16th in the BCS to get an automatic bid. Oklahoma will obviously be on the short end of that stick.

It actually looks pretty likely that the MAC winner will get the at-large spot. All they need to do is reach 16th in the BCS to get an automatic bid. Oklahoma will obviously be on the short end of that stick.

so based on that and the selection order (January 2013 games: Fiesta, Sugar, Orange) it would probably be...

all it would take is Stanford beating UCLA, Kansas State beating Texas, and Kent State beating NIU. none of those seem all that unlikely. the hardest part might be beating NIU, actually. I can't imagine the polls not bumping Kent St. ahead of UCLA in that scenario

I'm never sure with the BCS, but in their best case, Northern Illinois would be adding their best win of the year to leapfrog three losing teams (UCLA, Kent State, Texas), idle Michigan, and a Boise team that has a game against Nevada remaining. Just a question of how much the numbers are actually going to move, in that case.

all it would take is Stanford beating UCLA, Kansas State beating Texas, and Kent State beating NIU. none of those seem all that unlikely. the hardest part might be beating NIU, actually. I can't imagine the polls not bumping Kent St. ahead of UCLA in that scenario

If there's one thing that people really need to learn about statistics is that if any variable depends on three things happening (with no margin of error), that is not likely.